By Steve Byas

Not long after the attacks of September 11th, 2001, I began to get one of those mass e-mails that were more common back before Facebook. The e-mail asserted that President Reagan's National Security Advisor, Oliver North, during his Iran-contra "scandal" testimony, warned us about Osama bin Laden. I knew it was not true, because I was watching when Ollie testified about Abul Nidal, another terrorist.

I patiently replied to those who had written me with this information, which I had to do many times. Finally, I got a mass e-mail from North himself, explaining that he had said nothing about bin Laden, but rather Nidal.

Loads of misinformation goes out over the Internet, leading to the joke that Thomas Jefferson once said not to believe everything you read on the Internet.

A new problem has now developed -- Satire News sites.

The problem with these sites is that they usually have an agenda, freely mixing truth and "satire" (fiction), intended to castigate someone or something. Sometimes they are truly funny, but it seems they are increasingly just propaganda sites.

It is maddening to read that Senator Diane Feinstein said that if you will just lay down your weapon, a gunman intent on mass murder would lay down his weapon. Since Feinstein is rabidly anti-gun rights, this satire comes across, to some, as believable. It is posted on Facebook, sent out in e-mails, and the like, and there will be many out there who will simply take it as fact, and re-post it as fact.

Now, I am clearly not a Feinstein fan, but truth is more important to me than castigating some San Francisco progressive statist.

These so-called "jokes," like those told by liberals, David Letterman or Jon Stewart are also considered factual. Letterman even told a "joke" that the 14 year old daughter of Sarah Palin had been raped at Yankee Stadium by one of the players. How is rape funny? Only to a liberal who thinks that is OK for a joke topic, just so long as it is a conservative. One famous "joke" was told by a comedian when Dan Quayle was vice president. According to the "joke," Quayle regretted not learning Latin in school, since he was going to be traveling to Latin America. Of course, Quayle never said any such thing, but I had a supposedly educated man insist to me one time that Quayle had, in fact, said such an uneducated thing.

Now, this despicable stuff has used Oklahoma politics as part of its "satire." Newslo.com, a leftist "satire" site, recently ran an article that Oklahoma Republican politicians called the effort to build school tornado shelters as "interfering with God's will."

According to this satirical piece, which freely mixed genuine quotations of Republicans with made-up quotations, State School Superintendent Janet Barresi said, "If God sends a tornado to demolish a school, I'm sure He has a good reason. It is not our place to ask questions, nor to try and protect those children He has chosen to kill." Attorney General Scott Pruitt was quoted as saying, "The truth is if God wanted those children to live, then He wouldn't kill them." Finally, Governor Mary Fallin supposedly summed it all up with, "He has a plan for us all, and you better be damned sure it does not involve raising the corporate tax rate."

I saw this "funny" piece posted on Facebook, with the poster calling for Fallin's defeat by Democrat state Representative Joe Dorman of Rush Springs. Dorman is hoping to ride the storm shelter issue into the governor's mansion.

I promise you, you will see these quotations used on Facebook, in e-mails, by word-of-mouth, and in any other way that can be used for some political advantage.

Generally speaking, what I have learned after about 40 years of political campaigns is that if something seems especially outrageous, it is probably because it is not true. Yet, I have already seen some attempt to say that these fake quotes are accurate representations of the position of these mentioned politicians.

If you go to the website of Newslo, the fact that this is simply satire is not clearly stated. One would hope that readers would understand that no sane politician would make the statements you see there. My request is that if you choose to post or e-mail such garbage, you at least let folks know that it is satire.

Bearing false witness is still bearing false witness, even if it is done as a "joke."